White Sox notebook: Jenks thinks ’07 pen should be back in ’08

Wednesday

Sep 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMSep 26, 2007 at 8:04 PM

White Sox notes from Sept. 25.

Nathaniel Whalen

Bobby Jenks has heard all the criticism and seen all the struggles, but the one consistent member of the White Sox bullpen has hope for the team’s current group of relievers.
In fact, the closer has so much faith that he would like to see the whole group return in 2008.
“Yeah, as far as guys-wise, I don’t know who’s going to be back, whether or not they’re going to have a fire sale in the bullpen or make one or two moves, but I think a lot of the guys will be back regardless,” Jenks said. “Whether that’s on this team or Triple-A, up and down during the season, who knows? But I think the majority will be here next year on this team.”
It’s been well documented how the Sox broke spring training camp with a group of flamethrowers and how that experiment failed big-time. Now they have a group that includes a submarine left-hander (Mike Myers), a sidearm-throwing right-hander (Ehren Wassermann) and pretty much every type of reliever out there, be it a junkballer, hard thrower or whatever.
“Right now, we have a bunch of different looks, and it would be nice to see that come back next year and everybody be real consistent,” Jenks said.
As for Jenks, who was named one of the 10 finalists for the DHL Delivery Man of the Year on Tuesday, the key to his success and the advice he would give would-be teammates is keeping the ball down in homer-happy U.S. Cellular Field.
“I’ve been doing that really well this year, and I think that may be the only difference,” Jenks said. “I’ve been hitting my spot so many times, when I do make a mistake, it doesn’t hurt me in those big situations.”
The Bonds That Tie Us
Barry Bonds isn’t returning to the San Francisco Giants next year, but he’s probably not coming to the South Side, either.
“I don’t see him playing every day in left field,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “We have the DH (Jim Thome), and our DH is doing pretty good. I cannot say nothing because I don’t know what (general manager Ken Williams) has in mind. To me, I want some speed. The only way, like Kenny say, the only way you have speed is when people are on base. Right now, he’s not in my plans, but maybe Kenny’s plans.”
The Week That Was
Josh Fields was named American League Player of the Week after going 11-for-21 (.524) with three homers, six RBI and 10 runs from Sept. 17-23. He had a .615 on-base percentage and 1.190 slugging percentage.
Mark Buehrle (April 16-22) is the only other Sox to receive the honor this year.
Tune In
The Sox announced that Saturday’s game against Detroit is to begin at 6:05 p.m. at U.S. Cellular Field. It had been listed as “TBA.”
More White Sox news is at www.dailysouthtown.com/sports.

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